4Â°C Warming Means Your Future (Yes, Yours) is Very Unpleasant

The Met Office map lets you zoom in and examine climate change impacts in a number of sub-areas: Forest fires, crop yields, water availability, sea level rise, droughts, etc.

It's interactive climate change map day on TreeHugger! We just saw how badly hit the southeastern part of the US could get, and now it's time to check out what the world might look like under a 4°C (that's 7°F) average temperature rise scenario. This time it's the UK's Met Office Hadley Centre providing the Flash magic: But before we get to the images, consider this: A global average of 4°C is just that, an average -- and one which includes ocean areas. Over land the average temperature rise will be in the range of 5.5°C, and in the higher latitudes up to 14°C increases will be felt.

It also means serious declines in crop yields of all major cereal crops, in all major regions of production; it means decreased fish catches throughout the world as ocean acidification really sets in; it means half of all Himalayan glaciers reduced by 2050 -- leading to severe water shortages for one-quarter of China's population, not to mention the effect in India.

The Indus River could easily become like the ancient Saraswati River, which dried up sometime around 1900 BCE and failed to reach the sea before that -- 70% of the Indus' flow comes from glacial runoff which is at severe risk.

Yes, that says that the hottest days of the year in the eastern part of North America from Toronto to Washington DC could be 10-22°C (18-22°F) warmer.

30% declines in rice yields in South, Southeast and East Asia...

150 million more people a year experience severe flooding in Asia by 2075, as the planet's well on its way to one meter of sea level rise by 2100 and more thereafter.

Cyclones and hurricanes become more intense and destructive, further threatening coastal populations, already at risk.